Position Question From the book

[jtflush29]

I have been reading the ITH book and am wondering when is the position section of hands to play valid?

if there are 9 players
what positions are early, middle, late?

if there are 5 players
what positions are early, middle, late?

if there are 3 players
what positions are early, middle, late?

[ciaran]

I'm not a LHE expert, but I believe that in a 9-handed game UTG and UTG+1 are the EP spots, CO and Button are the LP spots and the spots in between are MP.

3-handed and 5-handed games are shorthanded and as such, not really covered by the normal positional terminology in ITH. If I recall correctly, the book mentions that you can treat a short-handed game as if you were playing full-ring with the hand folded to you, so in a 5-handed game UTG is the same as MP3/LP1, for instance. I don't think you want to carry this too far, of course. A 3-handed game is going to play by completely different rules than anything 6+ handed, for instance.

[mchilger]

Yes Jt, take away the player from early position. So a 9-handed game has two players in early position, and an 8-handed game has one player in early position (for sakes of the starting hand charts). When it gets lower than that, the charts are still pretty close, but strategy does change a little in short-handed games.

Welcome to the Forum.

Matthew

[RiverCascade]

Another, additional, way that helped me understand the concept in the beginning, jtf, was that the important, key aspect, is from the button, counter-clockwise, up to the blinds (as opposed to the traditional way of thinking about beginning/middle/late from the blinds to the button)... iow, it's not really as important, as the seats get fewer, about where is early, middle, etc., as it is to know how many have yet to act before the button, compared to where you are seated, or compared to the person who is making a move.

Probably not saying this so well... but if you are to act, say, in an 8-handed game, where does early start and middle begin, might be less important than thinking, I am 4 up from the button-- what am I comfortable/confident about open-raising, compared to limping, compared to playing at all, with only 3 more people left to act, or another way, with 3 whole people left to act.

P.S. Check out my tag line. It fits here, I believe.